Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of active-travel funding allocations to local authorities.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Active travel funding allocations are based on capability level as assessed through Active Travel England’s annual capability ratings process. The ratings are used to allocate funding and to provide the right support to authorities to help them develop capability to deliver high quality schemes. This process has resulted in an increase in the number of active travel schemes completed on schedule from 58% in 2023/4 to 69% in 2024/5.

Since being established in 2022, Active Travel England (ATE) has provided over £560 million of funding to authorities. ATE have overseen the creation of over 400 miles of new walking and cycling routes (and hundreds of safer crossing and junctions) that the above funding has provided.

There has also been a 9% improvement in the (published) assessment by Active Travel England on local councils’ ability to deliver schemes overall (from 2022/23 to 2023/24).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps are being taken to promote British creative sector exports over the next three years.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Over the next three years, the UK government will boost creative sector exports by increasing trade missions, targeting new and traditional markets, and expanding export finance through UK Export Finance (UKEF). In 2024/25, UKEF provided £14.5 billion in support for UK exports and maintains a nationwide network of export finance managers to advise local businesses. The Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board (CITIB) will be reformed to champion exports, while export promotion will be enhanced through events such as the BFI Film Festival and London Games Festival. The Department also funds the Music Export Growth Scheme which does what its name suggests. Alongside the GREAT campaign, these measures will strengthen the UK’s global creative leadership.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment has been made of regional disparities in access to elite sports pathways.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

Elite pathways are designed and operated by National Governing Bodies and are independent from the Government. Widening access is a condition of the public funding they receive. All funded sports must publish Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans and show annual progress in improving representation across their pathways.

Home Country Sports Councils regularly review athlete data from funded sports to understand representation across regions and socio economic groups.

Where disparities exist, they are usually linked to the location of specialist facilities or the cost and travel required to access them, rather than formal exclusion. To address this, UK Sport and the Sports Councils support regional hubs, outreach activity and targeted financial assistance.

National talent recruitment programmes, such as Find Your Greatness have also helped engage a more diverse population and introduce them to sports they may not previously have accessed.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resilience of local sports clubs in the context of energy prices.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is committed to supporting local sports clubs and recognises their importance to communities up and down the country.

The Government provides the majority of support for grassroots sport in England through its Arm’s Length Body Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery Funding. Ten percent of the funding allocated through their Movement Fund supports clubs to improve environmental sustainability and reduce energy costs. Sport England also provides detailed guidance to sporting clubs on managing energy costs and making facilities energy efficient.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the distribution of grassroots sports funding between urban and coastal towns.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Government is investing £98 million in grassroots sports facilities to support increased participation across the UK via the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme in 2025/26. Projects funded through the programme include new artificial grass pitches, changing rooms and pavilions, and floodlights.

A full list of projects funded through the Programme, as well as an interactive map for each funding year, can be found on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/multi-sport-grassroots-facilities-programme-projects-2021-to-2025.

At least £400 million will be invested in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities over the next four years, promoting health and wellbeing while ensuring community cohesion and pride of place.

Officials are now working with the sports sector and local leaders to develop plans for delivering this funding through a place-based approach. This will allow us to better understand the differing needs for grassroots facilities in communities across the UK, including coastal areas and their specific needs, and will ensure that investment best meets demand.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Youth Investment Fund in improving community facilities.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Youth Investment Fund is supporting the delivery of over 250 new and refurbished youth facilities across England, in less advantaged areas, so young people can regularly attend activities in welcoming, fit-for-purpose youth centres.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has invested over £145 million to provide stability to the youth sector and ensure young people can continue to access opportunities, as we transition to the new National Youth Strategy. Part of this funding is in recognition of the urgent need for more youth facilities. The investment has enabled more flexibility with project delivery and continues to support the completion of Youth Investment Fund projects into 2026.

An independent evaluation of the Youth Investment Fund is ongoing, with a final report due to be published in 2027.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on reducing delayed discharges from hospitals.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to tackling delayed discharges, to ensure patients do not remain in hospital longer than necessary and to free up hospital beds for patients that need them.

The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26 sets as a priority that hospitals should tackle the delays in patients waiting to be discharged. They should eliminate discharge delays of more than 48 hours caused by in-hospital issues, and work with local authorities to tackle the longest delays, starting with those over 21 days, and to profile discharges by pathway to support local planning.

In January 2025, we published a new policy framework for the £9 billion Better Care Fund, which gives the National Health Service and local authorities accountability for setting and achieving joint goals for reducing discharge delays. Starting in the financial year 2026/27, we will reform the Better Care Fund, focusing on ensuring consistent joint NHS and local authority funding for services essential to integrated health and social care, such as hospital discharge, intermediate care, rehabilitation, and reablement.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help prevent industrial action in the NHS.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and officials from the Department, on his behalf, regularly meet with representatives of the health trade unions to understand the views and concerns of the National Health Service’s workforces in England which they represent. He has been clear that he wants to continue to work constructively with all trade unions to improve the working conditions of all NHS staff and avoid unnecessary industrial action.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has accepted all headline pay recommendations from the independent pay review bodies for 2025/26 so that all NHS staff in England received a fair and sustainable pay rise, has committed to funding improvements to the Agenda for Change pay structure for staff such as porters, nurses, and paramedics, and is working with NHS England to implement a 10 point plan to improve resident doctors’ working lives.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care made a written offer on 5 November to the British Medical Association Resident Doctors Committee (BMA RDC) which included measures to tackle bottlenecks in training, put money back in resident doctors' pockets and ensure that there is consistent implementation of existing contractual entitlements. Unfortunately, the BMA RDC rejected this just hours after being set out in a letter to them, instead choosing to proceed with the damaging strike action taken between 14-19 November.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase NHS capacity in winter 2025-26.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have done more than ever to prepare for this winter, including stress testing winter plans, making sure community teams have the vaccines they need, and identifying patients most vulnerable in winter.

The Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Plan for 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, focuses on those improvements that will see the biggest impact on UEC performance this winter and on making UEC better every day, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. The plan commits to increasing the number of patients receiving urgent care in the community by expanding services such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams and increasing the use of virtual wards, also known as hospital at home. This will support winter resilience by expanding and optimising services such as urgent community response and increasing the use of virtual wards in each integrated care system, as well as planning with the ambulance services and 111 how to use this capacity most effectively.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help increase driver numbers in the logistics sector.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is committed to supporting the logistics sector in developing the skilled workforces it needs. The Government has confirmed £136 million for Skills Bootcamps in 2025-26 to support more than 40,000 learners. Skills Bootcamps will remain an important part of skills provision and are now funded through Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local areas directly, empowering local leaders with greater control over skills development. Local leaders are considering what occupations, including HGV driving, to prioritise.

The Government also continues to support the sector with skills training through the Urban Driver and Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) driver apprenticeships, and through Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) via Jobcentre Plus.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans there are to improve safety measures on rural A-roads with higher-than-average collision rates.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Government recognises that the majority of road fatalities (according to the latest statistics) occurred on rural roads (60%) with fewer fatalities on urban roads (35%) and motorways (5%).

Too many people are killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions, and this Government is working hard to prevent these tragedies for all road users. The Road Safety Strategy is under development and will include a broad range of policies which will have national reach. More details will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans she has to expand EV charging infrastructure in underserved regions.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). As of 1 November 2025, Government and industry have supported the installation of 86,798 publicly available charging devices, up 22% on this time last year. In 2024, the number of publicly available charging devices in rural areas of England increased by 45%.

Government’s £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund allocated capital and resource funding across England. Funding allocations were determined through an assessment of local authority need, including deprivation levels and rurality. The North East region was allocated over £25m LEVI funding to leverage significant private investment and expand the number of local public chargepoints across the region.

The £25 million EV Pavement Channel Grant is also available, which is intended to empower local authorities to adopt pavement channels as part of their local charging solutions. The North East was allocated over £1.6m to support the installation of pavement channels alongside public chargepoints.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment has been made of the reliability of regional rail services serving the North East.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Rail North Partnership, through which the Department and Transport for the North jointly manage Northern Trains’ and TransPennine Express’ contracts, works closely with these operators, as the Department does with intercity operators, and Mayor McGuiness to deliver the reliable services passengers in the North East want and deserve, taking account of operational and financial constraints on operators and the network.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of progress on introducing simpler and more integrated fares across rail and bus networks.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government recognises the value of greater integration between rail and bus networks, including in relation to ticketing and fares, and will continue to work with local transport authorities, operators and passengers to improve the fares and ticketing offer for passengers across England.

PlusBus is a well-established integrated ticketing product, allowing passengers to add unlimited local bus and tram travel to their rail ticket where available. A digital version is now available in many regions across England, making combined journeys simpler and more convenient.

Programmes currently under development in England also recognise the aspiration for smart, multi-modal ticketing. This includes the Department working with representatives from the bus industry, Transport for West Midlands and Midlands Connect to develop a national technology solution to facilitate multi-operator ticketing on buses and trams, focusing on contactless bank card payments and fares capping outside of London. In addition, the Fares, Ticketing, and Retail Programme is delivering two new Pay As You Go schemes for the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, and expanding an existing one in the South East.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support is being provided to heritage sites affected by severe weather and coastal erosion.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Support is being provided to heritage sites affected by severe weather and coastal erosion through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms Length Bodies, Historic England (HE) and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF).

In recent years, HE has worked with local authorities and other partners to assess a range of heritage assets at risk from coastal erosion, including Sandsfoot Castle in Dorset, Sandwich Bay in Kent, and Seaford Head in Sussex. These investigations are intended to better understand the significance of and risk to heritage assets from coastal erosion to inform asset owners, local authority and managers when taking their decisions about conservation. They have recently begun projects, such as ‘A Matter of Time & Tide’ which will quantify the number of Scheduled Monuments that are currently or likely to become at risk from coastal erosion and on what timeframe.

The NLHF has funded over 25 projects concerning heritage impacted by severe weather and coastal erosion. This includes a 2023 grant of £226,372 to the project ‘Facing the Cliff: The Race to Uncover and Share the Folkestone Villa at East Wear Bay’, which is an archeological project to excavate this significant site before it is lost due to coastal erosion. They also provided a 2021 grant of £295,904 to ‘The Compass Point Project’, which involved dismantling, moving, and reconstructing a 1835 Grade II Storm Tower in danger of falling into the sea.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on expanding access to youth cultural programmes in areas with historically low participation.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government has taken a number of steps to expand youth access to cultural programmes in under-served areas.

Arts Council England (ACE) is targeting 54 areas in England where cultural engagement and investment have been historically low through its Priority Places programme. All 54 areas include Music Hub provision which provide engagement aimed at young people; and some of the national portfolio organisations operating in Priority Places are entirely focused on children and young people, such as the BookTrust, the UK's largest reading charity which reaches millions of children each year. In 2024/25 ACE invested almost £27 million through National Lottery Project Grants to Priority Places.

The Arts Everywhere Fund, announced earlier this year, has also committed £3.2 million in funding for four cultural education programmes for the 2025/26 financial year to preserve increased access to arts for children and young people through the Museums and Schools Programme, Heritage Schools Programme, Art & Design National Saturday Clubs and BFI Film Academy.

In November, we published the Government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which will ensure that a high-quality arts education is an essential part of the broad and rich education every child deserves. We will revitalise arts education through a reformed curriculum and support for teachers. In September 2026 we will launch the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education, which will improve access and opportunity for children and young people, strengthening collaboration between schools and industry.

In addition, £132.5 million of dormant assets funding will be allocated to support the provision of services, facilities or opportunities to meet the needs of young people. £117.5m of this has been allocated to increase disadvantaged young people’s access to enrichment opportunities in the arts, culture, sports and wider youth services, aimed at improving wellbeing and employability.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support regional theatres with operational costs.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the vital role that the arts, including regional theatre, play for people and communities in all parts of this country, and delivers funding to theatres primarily through Arts Council England (ACE).

ACE’s National Portfolio Organisations, including theatres, can use some of their annual funding to cover operational costs like staffing as long as those costs are justified in the budget and align with ACE’s funding agreement. In addition, ACE’s National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG) also allows some contribution to overheads, but has to be tied to the particular project that the funding has been awarded for. Nearly £14.5 million was awarded to theatres outside the capital through the NLPG programme in 2024/25.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has made of the potential contribution of independent museums to local economic growth.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Drawing on external analysis, the Department considers independent museums as key to local economic growth. Museums form an integral part of the Creative Industries, driving innovation across the economy. By animating high streets and communities through their public programmes, museums draw tourists and employers to regions across the country, with many ranking amongst the most visited attractions in the UK.

Independent museums make up over half the sector, and the Association of Independent Museums estimates that independent museums across the UK made an overall economic contribution of £838.7 million in 2023, supporting 17,900 jobs. The Annual Museum Survey 2025 produced by the Arts Council England funded Museum Development Network, estimates the combined economic impact of Independent, Local Authority, and University museums in England at over £1.1 billion annually.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps are being taken to help reduce flight delays at regional airports.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The UK aviation market operates predominantly in the private sector. UK airports and airlines are therefore responsible for ensuring appropriate contingency plans are in place to minimise potential disruption. The Department regularly engages with the UK aviation sector around resilience issues and to gain assurance of their preparedness plans, particularly ahead of peak travel periods.

In the UK there is a robust legislative framework in place to protect consumers in the event of cancellation, long delays, and denied boarding. Airlines are responsible for ensuring they provide passengers with the required support, and this is enforced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of community diagnostic centres in reducing pressure on hospitals.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As set out in the Elective Reform Plan and the 10-Year Health Plan, community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are key to delivering on the Government’s ambition to move more planned care from hospitals to the community, reducing pressure on hospitals and delivering more convenient care close to home.

CDCs deliver additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of diagnostic checks in the community in as few visits as possible, enabling an accurate and fast diagnosis on a range of clinical pathways.

Under the Government, CDCs have delivered over 9.4 million tests and scans since July 2024, supporting patients to access vital tests, scans, and checks around their busy working lives.

In August 2025, the Government confirmed that 100 CDCs across the country are now offering out of hours services by opening for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, meaning patients can access vital tests, scans, and checks around their busy working lives. We are committed to increasing this number further.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase digital skills within the video-games sector.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government is making the UK the best place in the world to create video games, having identified the creative industries as one of eight priority sectors in the industrial strategy. We understand that digital skills are a key part of this.

The government is working with the creative industries to build evidence, support sector training pathways and ensure the workforce is prepared for the future of work. We will introduce short courses, in England, funded by the Growth and Skills Levy, in areas such as digital, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries from April 2026. We have also committed to a new £187 million “TechFirst” programme to bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities and train up people of all ages and backgrounds for the tech careers of the future.

As set out in the Creative Industries Sector Plan published earlier this year, a Video Games Skills Strategy is also being developed by an industry-led UK Games Skills Network. This will build on findings from the Creative Industries Council Skills Audit, giving video games skills organisations and delivery partners a clear remit for tackling persistent skills gaps.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions have taken place with broadcasters on improving access to live sports coverage for people without subscription services.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the importance of ensuring access to live sporting events so that they can be enjoyed by a wide audience. However, this must also be balanced with the ability of sports National Governing Bodies and rightsholders to generate revenue to invest in their sports at all levels.

All UK broadcasters are operationally and editorially independent of the Government. Decisions relating to coverage of particular sporting events are ultimately a commercial decision for them and/or the rights holder of the specific event.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase participation in creative apprenticeships in the North East.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government is committed to empowering local leaders to take decisions related to their local skills needs. As part of this, DCMS is providing £25m to the North East Strategic Authority through the Creative Places Growth Fund. This will allow areas to distribute funding according to local barriers and opportunities and maximise the impact of national interventions, including supporting regional skills initiatives like apprenticeships.

More broadly, this government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will offer greater flexibility to employers and learners. In the Creative Industries Sector Plan, we committed to working with industry to refine and develop this offer, to deliver apprenticeships and skills training that recognises the particular needs of the sector.

This will build on flexi-job apprenticeship agencies and new flexibilities like shorter apprenticeships, which were introduced in August. From April 2026, we will also introduce short course ‘apprenticeship units’ in areas such as digital and AI, to support Industrial Strategy sectors like the Creative Industries.

Found: Ramsey of Wall Heath (Chair, Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee), Chris Philp, Matt Vickers